Photo Courtesy of Sarah Kemp
Miller High Life Bottle House
The year 1903 was significant in American history for several reasons. The Wright brothers flew a rudimentary airplane over a beach in North Carolina. Both singer Bing Crosby and bank robber John Dillinger were born that year, and on Dec. 31 a Milwaukee brewing company introduced Miller High Life beer. The bottles were branded with a young lady and a crescent moon.
The Girl’s origin and identity has been the subject of debate for decades. In one story, a brewery executive was in a forest when the Girl appeared in a vision. That one’s LOL funny because of the similarity to the Christmas story. In another, family member was certain her daughter was the model.
More likely the Girl in the Moon was a painting inspired by the Munsey Magazine covers from the turn of the century. Unlike the newsstand pulp magazines with their lurid, racy covers, Munsey’s offered a sophisticated collection of stories with refined cover art. Most importantly, the Girl’s been an integral part of High Life longer than any of us have been alive. Ironically, the founder of the brewery never lived to see “The Champagne of Bottled Beer” go to market.
Tough Competition
“After completing his formal education at age 12, Frederick Miller spent the next 13 years to become a master brewer,” said Daniel Scholzen, Molson Coors corporate archivist. “When he was 30 years old, he came to America to craft his own brand of beer using a significant amount of money borrowed from his family.” Miller chose to settle in Milwaukee, a Midwestern city with a social and cultural atmosphere a large German population. He bought Charles Best’s Plank Road brewery out of bankruptcy in 1855 and lived on site while renovating the complex.
“The city already had two dozen beer production facilities and competition was a fact of life,” Scholzen said. “The dominant brewers included Charles Melms, Valentin Blatz and Joseph Schlitz.” When the Plank Road brewery became operational, Miller began selling beer in Chicago where there was room for another vendor. He also created a niche in St. Louis at the dawn of the Civil War. Frederick was never the largest brewer in his hometown and made no attempt to surpass Blatz, Schlitz and eventually Pabst. “His output was limited so he could personally supervise quality control, labor costs and customer satisfaction,” Scholzen said. “As the leading Milwaukee brewers established major distribution centers in large metropolitan cities, Frederick concentrated on local, state, and regional markets.”
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Miller ran his American brewery with knowledge gained while working in Europe. He was his own best salesman who took great pride in the beer that carried his name. Frederick Miller died in 1888 at the age of 63 and is buried in Milwaukee’s Calvary Cemetery. The Girl seated in a crescent moon presides over his marker now and forever.
